I methodically worked my way through the veins in my arms and legs, turning them first the tannish colour of drovers’ paths, then the darker brown of cart tracks, until eventually they became macadamised, blackened, by my abuse.

Months of injecting this stuff have given my body an odd aspect, as with every shot more chalk is deposited along the walls of my veins, much in the manner of earth being piled up to form either an embankment or a cutting. Thus the history of my addiction has been mapped out by me, in the same way that the road system of South-East England was originally constructed.

this means 'pregnant'. I first came across it when I read a short story called 'gravid babies', whose title stuck in my mind, but the meaning wasn't explained anywhere in the story so it was years later that I found out what it means.